WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fifteen percent of patients who took
Sutent, a pill used to treat kidney and stomach cancers,
developed heart failure, U.S. researchers reported on
Wednesday.

The study, presented at a meeting of cancer specialists,
confirmed other studies that suggest the drug causes the risky
but reversible side-effect.

Sutent, made under the generic name sunitinib by Pfizer,
has also been shown to damage heart cells.

"Our data demonstrate the need for routine cardiac
monitoring in patients receiving sunitinib," said Dr. Melinda
Telli of the Stanford University School of Medicine in
California.

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"Cardiac adverse effects need to be carefully examined in
future trials of sunitinib to determine the factors that place
patients at risk for this complication. That information will
allow us to administer this medication more safely to patients
for whom the benefits of treatment clearly outweigh the risks."

While heart failure is serious, it can be treated with a
variety of drugs. When caused by drugs, stopping the medication
usually clears up the problem.

Her team studied 48 patients with kidney cancer or
gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who got Sutent. Seven of
them, or 15 percent, experienced heart failure, a chronic
condition in which the heart loses its ability to pump blood
properly, she told the American Society of Clinical Oncology
meeting.

Sutent works by starving tumors -- it stops them from
growing blood vessels to feed themselves. It is being widely
tested for the treatment of several other cancers.

In December, researchers reported in the medical journal
Lancet that half of 75 patients with GIST who took the drug in
a clinical trial developed high blood pressure, 8 percent
developed heart failure, and two had heart attacks.